World Language Map

Languages spoken in Japan

18 living languages are mapped in Japan. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Japanese (95% of the population). They belong to 4 language families, the largest being Japonic (15 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Japan at a glance

  • 18living languages
  • 4language families
  • 123.2 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 3with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Japan. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Japan

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
JapaneseJaponic95%117,041,900Not endangered
Central OkinawanJaponic0.8%948,655Moribund
KoreanKoreanic0.5%640,650Not endangered
HachijoJaponicShifting
Hokkaido AinuAinuNearly extinct
KagoshimaJaponicShifting
KikaiJaponicMoribund
KunigamiJaponicMoribund
MiyakoJaponicMoribund
Northern Amami-OshimaJaponicMoribund
Oki-No-ErabuJaponicMoribund
OrokTungusicNearly extinct
Southern Amami-OshimaJaponicMoribund
Toku-No-ShimaJaponicMoribund
TsugaruJaponicShifting
YaeyamaJaponicShifting
YonaguniJaponicMoribund
YoronJaponicMoribund

Read more: where is Japanese spoken?

Language families in Japan

  • Japonic (15 languages)
  • Koreanic (1 language)
  • Ainu (1 language)
  • Tungusic (1 language)

About these numbers

The list of languages in Japan comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Japan

How many languages are spoken in Japan?

18 living languages are mapped in Japan, from 4 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Japan?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Japanese is spoken by 95% of the population, about 117,041,900 people, followed by Central Okinawan (0.8%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Japan?

Japonic (15 languages), Koreanic (1 language), Ainu (1 language) and Tungusic (1 language).

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